How To Root HTC Legend

By Haroon Q. Raja on Jan 11 2011 1 Comment

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HTC Legend with its aluminum unibody casing and conveniently pocketable size is one slick Android device but rooting it can be a bit tricky compared to most other devices. That’s why we have made a detailed guide to help you with the process so if you are still using an unrooted HTC Legend and want to gain root access on it, read on.

We recently compiled a list of all the rooting procedures for Android devices that we had covered in the past, and noticed HTC Legend missing from it. We were also notified about it by a user in the comments, and decided to fill the gap. We have to thank Paul of MoDaCo Android community for this procedure.
This method will basically flash your device with a generic rooted ROM and enable you to enter recovery but it will NOT flash a custom recovery to your device or enable write access to the /system partition while booted in Android. Unfortunately, no custom recovery image is available for the HTC Legend at the moment that we know of.

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Requirements:
Before you proceed, please note that this guide only works for HTC Legend devices with 0.43.xxxx hboot / bootloader or below and 1.31.xxx.x ROM or below. To check your hboot / bootloader version, turn your device off first and then turn it back on while keeping the ‘back’ button pressed. The second line on the screen you get will mention the hboot / bootloader version. Furthermore, you will require:

• A 32 bit Windows PC (there have been issues reported with 64 bit), Linux PC or Mac running OS X.
• Phone’s MicroUSB cable
• Either two MicroSD cards or one MicroSD card and the ability to connect it to your PC without your phone using a card reader.
  Note: You will lose the data on the SD cards so back it up before proceeding.
• The R4 Legend Root files from the link given below.

Note that you WILL lose all data on your phone as well as the SD cards so back it up before proceeding. At present, there is no way to take a nandroid backup of your phone’s current ROM as there is no custom recovery image available for HTC Legend.
Method:

1. First of all, convert a microSD card into a goldcard using this guide.
2. Extract the downloaded R4 Legend Root files to a location on your computer, launch a Command Prompt or Terminal window and navigate to that location at the command line.
3. Power your phone off and restart it in bootloader by pressing the ‘power’ button while keeping the ‘back’ button pressed. Once you see ‘FASTBOOT’ on the phone’s screen, connect it to the computer via USB. You should now see ‘FASTBOOT USB’ on the screen.
4. In the Command Prompt or Terminal window, enter the appropriate version of this command:

   Windows: step1-windows.bat
   Linux: ./step1-linux.sh
   Mac: ./step1-mac.sh

5. After this script finishes executing, remove the goldcard microSD card from your phone and replace it with a regular microSD card. If you are going to use the same card, connect it to your computer via a card reader and format it first.
6. Once you have a non-goldcard SD card in your phone, use the volume keys to go to ‘BOOTLOADER’ and press the ‘Power’ button to enter it.
7. Now use the volume keys to select ‘RECOVERY’ and enter it with the ‘Power’ button.
8. Enter the appropriate version of this command in the Command Prompt or Terminal window:

   Windows: step2-windows.bat
   Linux: ./step2-linux.sh
   Mac: ./step2-mac.sh

   Once this script has finished executing, you should see a ‘recovery’ screen on your device.
9. Select ‘wipe’ and wait till it finishes wiping your phone’s ROM.
10. Now choose to apply zip from sdcard, using the ‘rootedupdate.zip’ file that was copied to your phone’s SD card in the previous steps.
11. Wait patiently till the rooted ROM is flashed to your phone. It may take a while but once it finishes, you’re done. Just reboot your phone and enjoy root access on it.

Download R4 Legend Root